OpenAI’s hardware device may partly compete with AirPods Ultra – and lose

OpenAI's upcoming AI hardware device, developed with Jony Ive, may compete with Apple's anticipated AirPods Ultra, but analysts predict the AirPods model will be more popular due to Apple's ecosystem advantage.

Jony Ive https://9to5mac.com/guides/jony-ive/ and Sam Altman made a big promise when they teased the launch of a completely new concept https://9to5mac.com/2025/05/22/the-io-device-is-mysterious-and-important-what-could-it-be/ in AI hardware more than a year ago. The most recent report suggests that OpenAI https://9to5mac.com/guides/openai/ may technically be delivering on this promise, but could end up at least partly competing with an upcoming AirPods https://9to5mac.com/guides/airpods/ model. If so, I can easily see AirPods Ultra proving the more popular choice …